A Study to Assess the Nutritional Status of the Government and Private School Children of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India

The present study is an attempt to understand the nutritional status of children of a Government and a private school of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. A total of 240 participants (60 boys and 60 girls) aged 6-10 years were selected from each school. The study reflected that 84.16% of Government school and 10.83% of private school children were underweight and the boys were more underweight than the girls of Government school. A significant difference (p<0.001) was found between the nutritional status of the children of the Government school and the private school. The morbidity status shows that the Government school children suffer from more diseases. This confirms the poor nutritional status of the Government school children. Therefore various nutritional intervention programs can be formulated to improve the nutritional status of the children